Is turning into a sugar addict...

As the internet is few and far between on my travels, this was written on the 24/05/2012

You should all be aware from my up and coming travel plans on the right that we are currently on our Top Deck tour around Europe.  Before I begin on the adventures so far, I have no choice but to fill you in on the amazing discovery we found in London, specifically Leicester Square!

If you have managed to read any of my previous blogs, I am sure you have discovered that we like to do a lot of wandering around with little plans and just see what we stumble across.  Well we discovered possibly the greatest shop in the world! Yes, we discovered M&M world!! You would think that since M&Ms are actually made in Ballarat, we would have one of these shops (and we should)but no, we travelled around to world to discover that there is a shop that has walls literally lined with M&Ms of all the flavours and colours you could imagine.  So to purchase these M&Ms, they give you a plastic bag and you can fill it up as much as you like.  The problem was that it was £2.10 per 100g (EXPENSIVE) and I may have gotten a little carried away as I didn’t realise that it did not measure the 100gs for you..oops.  So after purchasing around £6 of M&Ms I was super excited to taste some crispy M&M heaven.  I am sure you can imagine my bitter disappointment when I discovered that they do not taste the same!!!!  They are more like a biscuit inside, not as crispy and the chocolate has a different flavour, yet I have still managed to eat the majority.

After our M&M discovery we made our way to Clink 78 in Kings Cross where we stayed before departing for our tour at 6:30am on Tuesday morning.  We departed London and headed to Dover to catch the ferry across to France.  It was approximately a one and a half hour bus ride, one and a half hour ferry ride and then another 4 hour bus ride before finally arriving at Paris.  We arrived late in the afternoon before moving onto our first Paris dinner at a restaurant where we had a set menu organised by the tour.  I am sure many of you will be disgusted but my first taste of Paris was snails! I took the plunge and shoved the garlic covered snail into my mouth. I was not sure what to expect, but surprisingly it tasted like an overcooked chewy mushroom covered in a butt load of garlic butter and herbs. After our snails, we were given a chicken & onion soup with cheesy bread soaking in the middle followed by main course of braised steak on macaroni type pasta.  I must admit I found the main course very odd as it was just two bits of meat on plain boring pasta! Not at all what I was expecting from Paris, but apparently a traditional dish that the French enjoy.  No offence to the French, but I don’t think I will be cooking a version of that when I get home.

After dinner we made our way into the city on our bus to do a lights tour and check out all the sights at night.  My first impression of Paris was again not what I was expecting.  For a city that is well known as the city of love, some areas we drove through certainly required some love as there was a lot more graffiti and run down areas than I ever imagined.  Luckily I had the whole next day to explore the city to change my opinion, which I must admit I am now sitting on the fence as I am unsure if the spectacular things I saw outweighed all the rest.  With an early start again, we jumped in the bus that took us into the city and dropped us at the Louvre, famously known for being the home of the Mona Lisa.  This is where my search for Macaroons begun! I was super keen to discover another of Paris’ well known treats from any cute little Patisserie I had heard line the streets.  It took the majority of the day but after visiting the Louvre, having lunch in front of the Notre Dame, testing out the tube/underground, climbing the 280 steps of the Arc De Triomphe we strolled down the famous shopping strip Avenue Des Champs and there it was, Ladurée, a well known sweats shop.  With the intention of purchasing one macaroon, I could not help myself and had to taste test three! I choose Raspberry, Lemon and Milk Chocolate.  All three macaroons were busrting with flavour and as expected were a light meringue biscuit type texture.  Chocolate was however the most delicious and I can see this becoming an addiction when in London as I have already seen a lot of patisseries that are full of macaroons.

It was time to walk off a little more of the food we have eaten, so we continued towards Place De La Concorde until walking was no longer an option as the aussie thongs, aka Havaianas, we had been wearing all day had given me blisters.  This was the perfect time to catch a bike taxi to the Eiffel Tower where the funny Frenchman had a Rhianna CD pumping the whole way, well worth the €7.50 each.

Finally we had arrived at the bottom of arguably the most famous landmark in Paris where we sat for a couple of hours watching the people go by and for the first time all day taking in the view from the grass parks.  This was the setting for our picnic dinner organised by our tour guides where we indulged on yet again traditional French food such as cheese, baguettes, fresh meats and salads as well as fruits and cakes.  With another deliciously filling meal down, what better way to work off some calories than a walk up the Eiffel Tower at sunset.  We walked the stairs to level 2 (I cannot remember the number of stairs, but something like 800 at a guess) and then spent the longest minute ever in a lift up to the top.  The views were spectacular and for me was the highlight of the trip to Paris, apart from the macaroons of course!!

We are currently sitting on a 9 hour bus ride to Switzerland and have just had another picnic on the side of the road, a much smaller version of last night, so I best sign off and be a little more social with the rest of our group xx